AMD Integrated Circuits

486DX2 66MHz Microprocessor

Oblique illumination filtered through red and green gels was employed to highlight buses, registers, and memory caches in the digital image featured below. The bonding wires, which are attached to pads navigating the periphery of the die, are evident in the upper and right-hand portions of the photomicrograph.

The 66 megahertz internal clock speed version of Advanced Micro Devices (AMD) 486DX2 microprocessor, released in an August of 1992, followed the slower 50-megahertz clock speed processor. Many computer hardware suppliers and users were of the opinion that compatible chips produced by AMD were just as reliable as the genuine Intel processors, although they were priced considerably lower. However, AMD applied different timing and control signals than Intel and usually, jumpers were required to modify the system boards for proper operation. The 80486DX2-66 is by far the most common version of the 486 microprocessors. A large number of these systems were produced, and some are still in use today, particularly in Third World nations and some small businesses.